Posts in
October 2009

Shell is facing the humiliation of having to reduce its workforce by 5000 as part of a radical cost-cutting drive due to the falling oil price. As the oil giant’s profits had plummeted an amazing 73 per cent, Peter Voser, the chief executive, said “the outlook remains very uncertain, and we are not expecting a...Continue reading 'Shell to Fight Chinese in Nigeria'.

Much of the political chatter across Europe this morning is about the prospect of ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair becoming the new President of the European Council, if and when the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all Member States. But behind the scenes at today’s Brussels Summit a huge political row is raging over not...Continue reading 'EU “Deadlocked” over Climate Deal'.

And so it goes on. We may be able to send people to the moon but we are not able to stop a simple leak on an oil rig. Over two months after Thailand’s PTTEP’s well sprung a leak in the Timor Sea, the oil continues to pour into the sea at a rate of...Continue reading '“We’ve got an environmental disaster unfolding”'.

There has been a growing movement amongst communities from the South that are affected by oil exploitation to keep the “oil in the soil.” Campaigners from both Nigeria and Ecuador have long mooted the idea, and so have some governments. For the last two years Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has proposed that his government should...Continue reading '$3 Billion to Keep Amazon Oil in the Soil'.

There will be many twists and turns in the run up to Copenhagen. Most people believe that there will not be a comprehensive climate agreement in December, or if there is, it will be so compromised it will not solve the problem. But what if the agreement actively makes things worse? According to the Independent...Continue reading 'Forest Agreement is “Fundamentally Flawed”'.

For a long time now people have argued that if you internalised the external costs of our fossil fuel addiction, we would soon realise that our habit was too expensive and we would be left with no alternative but to kick our dirty ways. So a new report from the US National Research Council has...Continue reading 'The $120 Billion Hidden Cost of Our Addiction'.

Are you ready for Saturday’s International day of climate action? The campaign organisation 350.org is calling on people around the world to organize an action this Saturday on October 24. What started out eighteen months ago as a idea promoted by author/climate-change activist Bill McKibben and a few students, 350.org has gone global. The Web-based...Continue reading 'Get Ready to Join 350'.

The joke going round Europe is that the only reason that President Obama won the Nobel Peace prize is that he is not President Bush. It’s not who he is but who he is not, that matters. He might not be President Bush but Obama is continuing the mistakes of the Bush era. In fact...Continue reading 'Drilling in the Arctic? Yes We Can…'.

Their motto is “sometimes it takes a lie to expose the truth”. And yesterday that is what happened. It was billed as a dramatic announcement: the US Chamber of Commerce, the old dinosaur business organisation that leads the business lobby in opposing climate change had suddenly reversed its position. At a press conference at the...Continue reading 'The Yes Men Prank US Chamber of Commerce on Climate'.

Gordon Brown may be a dead-man walking when it comes to domestic politics in the UK. But the old man still believes he can pack a punch on the international scene, whether it be the financial or climate crisis. Addressing the Major Economies Forum in London today, he used most undiplomatic language in predicting that...Continue reading 'Brown: “For the planet there is no Plan B”'.